Dejection: An Ode Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDE FEEFGGHHIIIIJIJIIIKL CMMCIIN N OONNCCCC PPICCIQQ M MMIRIISIRIRI M MMIICTCCCCTIIUIUI M MVMWXXRRTRTYZYZZA2A2 M IB2IB2IIMB2B2MC2C2D2 E2F2IIIG2IH2ICIIII2I II2CC M J2J2JRJRK2K2UA2A2MUULate late yestreen I saw the new moon | A |
With the old moon in her arms | B |
And I fear I fear my master dear | C |
We shall have a deadly storm | D |
Ballad of Sir Patrick Spence | E |
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I | - |
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Well If the Bard was weather wise who made | F |
The grand old ballad of Sir Patrick Spence | E |
This night so tranquil now will not go hence | E |
Unroused by winds that ply a busier trade | F |
Than those which mould yon cloud in lazy flakes | G |
Or the dull sobbing draft that moans and rakes | G |
Upon the strings of this Aeolian lute | H |
Which better far were mute | H |
For lo the New moon winter bright | I |
And overspread with phantom light | I |
With swimming phantom light o'erspread | I |
But rimmed and circled by a silver thread | I |
I see the old Moon in her lap foretelling | J |
The coming on of rain and squally blast | I |
And oh that even now the gust were swelling | J |
And the slant night shower driving loud and fast | I |
Those sounds which oft have raised me whilst they awed | I |
And sent my soul abroad | I |
Might now perhaps their wonted impulse give | K |
Might startle this dull pain and make it move and live | L |
- | |
II | - |
- | |
A grief without a pang void dark and drear | C |
A stifled drowsy unimpassioned grief | M |
Which finds no natural outlet no relief | M |
In word or sigh or tear | C |
O Lady in this wan and heartless mood | I |
To other thoughts by yonder throstle wooed | I |
All this long eve so balmy and serene | N |
Have I been gazing on the western sky | - |
And its peculiar tint of yellow green | N |
And still I gaze and with how blank an eye | - |
And those thin clouds above in flakes and bars | O |
That give away their motion to the stars | O |
Those stars that glide behind them or between | N |
Now sparkling now bedimmed but always seen | N |
Yon crescent Moon as fixed as if it grew | C |
In its own cloudless starless lake of blue | C |
I see them all so excellently fair | C |
I see not feel how beautiful they are | C |
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III | - |
- | |
My genial spirits fail | P |
And what can these avail | P |
To lift the smothering weight from off my breast | I |
It were a vain endeavour | C |
Though I should gaze forever | C |
On that green light that lingers in the west | I |
I may not hope from outward forms to win | Q |
The passion and the life whose fountains are within | Q |
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IV | M |
- | |
O Lady we receive but what we give | M |
And in our life alone does Nature live | M |
Ours is her wedding garment ours her shroud | I |
And would we aught behold of higher worth | R |
Than that inanimate cold world allowed | I |
To the poor loveless ever anxious crowd | I |
Ah from the soul itself must issue forth | S |
A light a glory a fair luminous cloud | I |
Enveloping the Earth | R |
And from the soul itself must there be sent | I |
A sweet and potent voice of its own birth | R |
Of all sweet sounds the life and element | I |
- | |
V | M |
- | |
O pure of heart thou need'st not ask of me | M |
What this strong music in the soul may be | M |
What and wherein it doth exist | I |
This light this glory this fair luminous mist | I |
This beautiful and beauty making power | C |
Joy virtuous Lady Joy that ne'er was given | T |
Save to the pure and in their purest hour | C |
Life and Life's effluence cloud at once and shower | C |
Joy Lady is the spirit and the power | C |
Which wedding Nature to us gives in dower | C |
A new Earth and new Heaven | T |
Undreamt of by the sensual and the proud | I |
Joy is the sweet voice Joy the luminous cloud | I |
We in ourselves rejoice | U |
And thence flows all that charms or ear or sight | I |
All melodies the echoes of that voice | U |
All colours a suffusion from that light | I |
- | |
VI | M |
- | |
There was a time when though my path was rough | M |
This joy within me dallied with distress | V |
And all misfortunes were but as the stuff | M |
Whence Fancy made me dreams of happiness | W |
For hope grew round me like the twining vine | X |
And fruits and foliage not my own seemed mine | X |
But now afflictions bow me down to earth | R |
Nor care I that they rob me of my mirth | R |
But oh each visitation | T |
Suspends what Nature gave me at my birth | R |
My shaping spirit of Imagination | T |
For not to think of what I needs must feel | Y |
But to be still and patient all I can | Z |
And haply by abstruse research to steal | Y |
From my own nature all the natural man | Z |
This was my sole resource my only plan | Z |
Till that which suits a part infects the whole | A2 |
And now is almost grown the habit of my soul | A2 |
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VII | M |
- | |
Hence viper thoughts that coil around my mind | I |
Reality's dark dream | B2 |
I turn from you and listen to the wind | I |
Which long has raved unnoticed What a scream | B2 |
Of agony by torture lengthened out | I |
That lute sent forth Thou Wind that rav'st without | I |
Bare crag or mountain tairn or blasted tree | M |
Or pine grove whither woodman never clomb | B2 |
Or lonely house long held the witches' home | B2 |
Methinks were fitter instruments for thee | M |
Mad Lutanist who in this month of showers | C2 |
Of dark brown gardens and of peeping flowers | C2 |
Mak'st Devils' yule with worse than wintry song | D2 |
The blossoms buds and timorous leaves among | E2 |
Thou actor perfect in all tragic sounds | F2 |
Thou mighty poet e'en to frenzy bold | I |
What tell'st thou now about | I |
'Tis of the rushing of an host in rout | I |
With groans of trampled men with smarting wounds | G2 |
At once they groan with pain and shudder with the cold | I |
But hush there is a pause of deepest silence | H2 |
And all that noise as of a rushing crowd | I |
With groans and tremulous shudderings all is over | C |
It tells another tale with sounds less deep and loud | I |
A tale of less affright | I |
And tempered with delight | I |
As Otway's self had framed the tender lay | I2 |
'Tis of a little child | I |
Upon a lonesome wild | I |
Not far from home but she hath lost her way | I2 |
And now moans low in bitter grief and fear | C |
And now screams loud and hopes to make her mother hear | C |
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VIII | M |
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'Tis midnight but small thoughts have I of sleep | J2 |
Full seldom may my friend such vigils keep | J2 |
Visit her gentle Sleep with wings of healing | J |
And may this storm be but a mountain birth | R |
May all the stars hang bright above her dwelling | J |
Silent as though they watched the sleeping Earth | R |
With light heart may she rise | K2 |
Gay fancy cheerful eyes | K2 |
Joy lift her spirit joy attune her voice | U |
To her may all things live from pole to pole | A2 |
Their life the eddying of her living soul | A2 |
O simple spirit guided from above | M |
Dear Lady friend devoutest of my choice | U |
Thus mayst thou ever evermore rejoice | U |
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(3)
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Khurram Lohia: Very nice poem
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